Two former Parramatta Eels players are accused of harbouring semi-automatic weapons and possessing more than half-a-million dollars in cash after dramatic arrests in Sydney's Centennial Park yesterday.

Limp wages growth souring confidence

Australians have become steadily more gloomy since the first few weeks of the year, faced with a weak wage growth outlook and a rise in unemployment.

While the ANZ-Roy Morgan consumer confidence index did rise 1.6 per cent in the past week, ANZ senior economist Felicity Emmett says it has been trending down since late January, posing a risk to the household spending outlook.

She expects at least some of the recent decline in consumer confidence relates to the weak outlook for wages growth, including the mooted cut to penalty rates, as well as the rise in unemployment.

"There is a risk that households are becoming less confident about the medium-term outlook for income growth in an environment of high household debt," she says.

A separate analysis by Commonwealth Bank economist Kristina Clifton suggests people may have to wait until 2019 before wage growth gets back to some sort of normality.

Annual private sector wage growth has been in decline since early 2011, skidding to its lowest level in some 20 years at just 1.8 per cent.

There are a number of explanations for the decline, including heightened job security concerns as unemployment remains relatively high at 5.9 per cent, low inflation and a decline in commodity prices from a 2011 peak.